Ryan Gomes, three others to face Suriname courts tomorrow

A tip-off to Suriname authorities may have led to the dismantling of a major drug gang and resulted in the arrest of former Guyanese policeman, Ryan Gomes, earlier this year.
The gang had been smuggling cocaine across the Corentyne border for a while now with a fuel tank of a car modified to hide the drugs, the Suriname media reported yesterday.
According to the Dagblad Suriname, the tipster provided strong information that a drop would have been made on January 3, 2011.
While police patrols are heavy in the Coronie area, the ingenious ways devised by drug smugglers to slip the illicit substance into Suriname from Guyana have been a major challenge.
On January 3, a special squad including members of the narcotics unit placed a house under surveillance and later saw a vehicle with Guyanese registration pulling into the garage.
The police ranks immediately invaded the house where four men were rounded up and placed to lie on the ground.
In the house, police discovered US$146,950 in cash and bundles of cocaine, hemp and two digital scales.
The team also searched the car which Gomes, one of the four men arrested, was driving, and discovered a specially constructed petrol tank. In it were 25 packages of cocaine and handguns.
Gomes, according to the Suriname media, denied knowledge of the drugs, saying that he was there to collect money for one Marcus, a Guyanese, whom police believed to be a fictitious person. To pick up the money, Gomes claimed that he would be paid between US$600-$700.
The four men, including Gomes, are to appear before a magistrate tomorrow, and are being accused of smuggling 17 kilos of cocaine. Additionally, the men will have to explain what they were doing with such a large quantity of US currency.